Montevideo, Uruguay, Nov 18, 2003 / 22:00 pm
The woman used by feminist lawyers who argued in favor of the legalization of abortion on demand in the United States in 1973, is making a visit to Montevideo this week to warn of the harm that abortion will bring to millions of women if legalized in Uruguay.
While the Senate prepares to vote on legislation that would make Uruguay the first country in Latin America to allow abortion, Norma McCorvey, the "Jane Roe" of Roe v. Wade, arrived in the capital to share her powerful testimony.
Early in 1970, Norma McCorvey claimed she had been raped by a gang and left pregnant. Sarah Weddington and Linda Coffee, recent law-school graduates of the University of Texas, saw the case as an opportunity to attack the Texas law against abortion. They convinced McCorvey to undergo an abortion rather than give her baby up for adoption, as she had previously decided.
The case was appealed all the way to the Supreme Court, which legalized abortion in all 50 states in 1973. As the case ran its course, McCorvey's baby was born and given up for adoption.